Little Stevie thought ‘covert sensitization’ was like magic camp — except the trick was making gay men feel shame instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The rabbit quit after day one.
Steven C. Hayes trying to make gay men vomit by pairing attractive men with nausea induction in the mid 80s
His subjects came in for a study. They left confused, unpaid actors in Stevie’s one-man morality play. No one ever got the script.
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Now grown-up, Stevie sells ACT — an unfalsifiable cure-all where the goal isn’t getting better, it’s agreeing you already are. Even the chalkboard doesn’t believe him.
When asked why he tested ACT on people with schizophrenia without proper follow-up and deterioration measures, Stevie said, ‘Because I accept the results before I commit to the methods.’ The patient accepted a ride home instead.
What a disgrace to the entire history of medicine, and shame on every institution that allowed or worse, supported, his malevolent work. It reminds me of the two CIA-affiliated psychologists who worked at Abu Ghraib.
